1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an automatic drug dispenser for automatically ejecting various drugs.
2. Description of the Related Art
In an automatic drug dispenser such as a tablet packing machine and an injection dispensing machine, drugs are accommodated in drug cassettes such as tablet feeders according to their categories. A desired amount of drug is taken out in accordance with a prescription or an instruction for dispensing based on the prescription. In a majority of types of dispensers, drug cassettes are detachable to facilitate refilling of drug cassettes with drugs. Means are provided to ensure that drug containers are attached only to their counterparts so as to prevent a container from being attached to an improper destination.
Such means may be a mechanical one that takes advantage of alignment between a key (projection) and a slot (hole). The following approach of reading identification information has been in the mainstream from the perspectives of cost, flexibility, expandability and miniaturization. In this approach, different drug cassettes are assigned different identification numbers. The number is read electronically or magnetically so that the result of reading is checked against preset check data. An alarm is issued in the event of a matching failure. Some drug dispensing systems are so arranged as to further ensure that the drug cassettes are properly positioned, while employing the aforementioned approach of reading identification information. This is achieved by conducting multiple checks that differ in the range of checking (see, for example, patent document No. 1).
[Patent document No. 1]
JP2002-272812 A
[Patent document No. 2]
JP2002-153541 A
[Patent document No. 3]
JP2002-154637
[Patent document No. 4]
Japanese Utility Model Publication 5-7601
[Patent document No. 5]
Japanese Utility Model Publication 5-7602
[Patent document No. 6]
JP06-080103
[Patent document No. 7]
JP11-206855 (first page)
[Patent document No. 8]
JP2003-31871
As the number of drug types is increased, the number of drug feeders stored is also increased. When there are as many as several hundred or more feeders, initial setting and preparation of check data are not easy.
The configuration of an ejecting member of the drug feeder should be adapted to the configuration of the drug (dosage form). Since the variety of dosage form is quite extensive, it is not easy to make available a full line-up of drug feeders adapted to the various dosage forms.
Accordingly, a technical problem to be solved is to improve an automatic drug dispenser so that preparation of check data and adaptation to dosage forms are easy, even if there are a large number of drug feeders of diverse configurations.